Murrieta Mesa Sprints Away from Citrus Valley

When Murrieta Mesa and Redlands Citrus Valley opened up Thursday's nonleague football game by marching down the field to score touchdowns, the game looked like it was going to be a sprint to the finish.

But when Citrus Valley (3-1) stumbled, Mesa (3-0) took advantage and ended up coasting to the finish with a 37-14 victory.

"We keep getting breaks on defense, and what we really need to do is not rely on a lot of the breaks that we're getting defensively," said Mesa coach Justin Schaeffer. "Our offense is moving the ball and scoring, and they're scoring, and that gives us the wiggle room defensively."

The defense came up big on back-to-back Citrus Valley drives in the second quarter to give the Rams the momentum it needed to take control of the game.

With Mesa up 10-7, Steven Santiago intercepted a pass from Blackhawk quarterback Justin Lopez, and returned it to the Citrus Valley 18 yard line. Two plays later, Chase Chambers connected with Davian Neitz on a 7-yard pass play and a 17-7 lead.

After forcing the Blackhawks to punt on their next possession, Carson Watters broke through and got a hand on punter Rex Gaede's kick, giving the Rams the ball at the Citrus Valley 27. Again, it only took the Rams two plays to convert, as running back Kyler Vasquez converted from 3 yards out to give the Rams a 24-7 lead.

"Penalties and turnovers against a good team like that, you can't give them anything," said Citrus Valley coach Pete Smolin. "That's definitely the best team we're going to face all year (in the) regular season.

"We gave them a short field a lot of times, and they capitalized on it."

Citrus Valley hoped to take the momentum into halftime, by scoring with 16.1 seconds remaining in the half. The Blackhawks went 72 yards in 1:11, capped off by a 10-yard run from Andrew Gonzales.

But the Blackhawks weren't able to capitalize, and Mesa took advantage.

On their first drive of the second half, the Rams picked up two first downs on Blackhawk penalties, and running back Dominic Odegaard pushed his way through the line, and the second wave of Citrus Valley defenders to score from 39 yards out to put the game out of reach.

But despite the going away win, Schaeffer said his team can't rest on its perfect start to the season.

"We absolutely have to keep them focused," he said. "We've got a really rough road ahead -- we're in a really difficult conference. We're really happy to be 3 and 0, but this certainly wasn't a perfect game by us, and we've got a lot of things to clean up and work on before we get into league play."

Key Stats:

• Chase Chambers, QB, Mesa: 16-for-22 passing, 185 yards, two touchdowns
• Davian Neitz, WR, Mesa: 6 catches, 72 yards, one touchdown
• Dominic Odegaard, RB, Mesa: 3 carries, 54 yards, one touchdown
• Andrew Gonzales, RB, Citrus Valley: 15 carries, 74 yards, one touchdown
• Jason Snow, RB, Citrus Valley: 9 carries, 64 yards, one touchdown
• Kyle Haddock, WR, Citrus Valley: 6 catches, 49 yards